


Sherbet Lemons

by Rosie_Rues



Series: The Rising Storm [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: 1972, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-09-10
Updated: 2005-09-10
Packaged: 2017-10-22 19:07:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/241511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosie_Rues/pseuds/Rosie_Rues





	Sherbet Lemons

_The sofa with stuffing missing  
Gryffindor Common Room,  
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,  
Nr. Hogsmeade,  
Scotland,  
United Kingdom,  
Europe,  
Earth,  
The Solar System,  
The Universe  
_

 _14th March 1972_

 _Dear Reggie,_

 __

 _That was the BEST howler ever! Professor McGonnergal knocked her porrige off the table when Mother started on about how the Mudbloods would murder us all in our beds. Bella got detention cause she cheered and Andromeda lost twenty points for Slytherin because she tried to use Silencio and it exploded all over Lupin’s chair (which didn’t matter cause he was in the hospital wing AGAIN but the wood’s gone a funny colour) and that end of the Great Hall still smells like DRAINS. Some of the house elves were crying over it this evening. Had to shout all through dinner to make ourselves heard over them._

 _Sorry about the sherbett lemons. I forgot she wouldn’t like them just because they were Muggle sweets. They wouldn’t have hurt you. Honnest. Everyone here is eating them, even DUMBLEDORE._

 _Did she really make you throw them all up? Potion or_ ejecto omnium? _I HATE that spell – Madam Pomfrey has a much better one she used when Peter and I transfigured nails into cockroach clusters and that prat Potter ate them all. Did you sick up them all in one go or did she keep you at it? Did you hit Kreacher – I shall DISOWN you as my brother if you didn’t!_

 _Evans isn’t talking to me. I think she got offended by the bit about exterminating the filthy mudbloods because of their inhuman perversions. Probabally shouldn’t have laughed but I could just see Mother saying it with her eyes rolling and everything. The only perversion Evans has is being too bloody good at Potions. She’s the only person in our year who understands Slughorn and I haven’t got anyone to copy off now. I’ll have to get Lupin to get her notes and then copy his and I can’t ever read his handwritting. On the other hand, they were her sherbett lemons so it’s partly her fault, right?_

 _Hope you’re not still feeling ill. Bag of dungbombs attached – I was going to use them on Narcissa but thought you might like them. We nicked them from Filch’s room. Use them on Kreacher. Send me a photo if you can._

 _Must go – Peter and I are going to watch Quidditch practice. We’re going to THRASH Hufflepuff next week._

 _Regards and all that,_

 _Your favouritte brother,_

 _Sirius Orion Alphard Quercus Black_

 _P.S. Sorry. Things are different here. You’ll see next year._

Years later, Regulus reads all those letters again. He has saved each one of them and now he spreads them out across the floor. They are like a map, he thinks dully, showing how he had lost his brother. Now it is too late to mend the breach with dungbombs and exotic sweets. He knows the precise moment when Sirius stopped loving him. He can’t tell when he himself started to hate his brother.

All that is past. Hogwarts is behind them both.

Heavy-hearted, Regulus lifts his wand and whispers, “ _Incendio_ .”

As the letters burn, he makes his way down through the house. There is a locket hidden downstairs that wasn’t there yesterday and Regulus smiles to himself, even though he can feel his lip curling. Sirius never played a prank this good.

He hears Kreacher shriek at the flames as he reaches the front door and slips out, knowing he will not be followed. It’s time to go back. Time to cover his tracks. Time to die before Voldemort can find out what he has done.

Before he apparates he reaches into his pocket. There’s a bag of sweets there that he brought from a grimy Muggle cornershop earlier. He slips one into his mouth and sucks until the sherbet bursts against the top of his mouth.

How strange, he thinks, that redemption should taste of lemons.


End file.
